Writings uploaded in Academia
Freeing Education from methods and doctrines
As methods and theories precede the process of knowing a cognitive reversal happens and reasoning becomes the way to comprehend and apply what is known. Then intuition becomes a mere tool in the hands of reason. Creativity becomes bound within the framework of the prescribed. But if we let the method evolve naturally a totally new possibility is awoken. This shift will immediately put us into the realm of the unknown thus paving way for creativity and spontaneity. Some aspects of our life have to be reinvented, lived, and experienced firsthand. Beauty is one of them. To relate to the world, to make sense of it, and engage with it also has to be firsthand. Unfortunately, the whole educational process as well as the instructed living takes away the directness and authenticity of living. The possibility of unfolding what is inherent is replaced with doctrines and methods. Three key aspects that need re-examining are the what, how, and why of knowledge. Here knowledge needs to be understood as the totality of living itself. What constitutes cognition, how is beauty, and why is it about value? But all this needs to see in the context of existence and not anthropocentric. From anthropocentric to nature centricThis is the catch. Is it possible for someone who is anthropocentric to become nature-centric
What is vernacular?
In October 2015 while I was at the temporary campus of the Sanchi university, near Bhopal (India) I saw a Thulsi thara decorated with a line drawn around on the ground. The way the circle was drawn can only be done by someone free from any rules, both self-imposed and external. Total self-abandonment! Again on 11th January 2016 while traveling to the Sanchi University campus on the way I spotted houses decorated like this. The treatment is very unusual and I guessed that the villages around would also have such work. So the next two days I was able to take two hours each to visit two villages nearby. Really it was such a treat for the eyes and soul to see total innocence and freedom. It appears that the vernacular is not about materials but about something in the being-ness of the people. They are continuously responding to materials that come their way, both aesthetically and by innovating new ways of doing. In a way doing very little or a feeling of letting things be with no effort to control. We miss this because we are trained to see the product or at best the process but never the people behind it and their effortless actions. Nor do have any experiential reference to understand due to our regimented ‘schooling’. Above all this is it possible for us to imbibe these qualities and enable the students to acquire ‘indigenous- ness’? Is it possible to work with the ‘vernacular’ with total respect to initiate a new way of engaging with them?
https://www.academia.edu/21205075/What_is_vernacular
Exploring the potential of design education to revert from anthropocentric individualistic beings to Nature centric universal beings
Redesigning design education for spiritual well-being and mindfulness
BIOLOGICAL ROOTS OF BEAUTY
One can explore the biological roots of hunger but can one explore the biological root of bread? Like food, art is what is produced to satisfy a biological need. What is this biological need? Maybe just to survive we need food, in a similar manner, there may be something of similar necessity/ urgency that has now resulted in 'art'. Food has also undergone changes in a manner that is similar to art (a balanced diet and all that kinds of ideas!). The present conception of art is a modern construct. Can something that has been constructed mentally have biological roots? When one sees food it is natural to salivate especially if one is hungry. This indeed is a biological response But by studying this act of salivation can one understand the biological roots of hunger!
https://www.academia.edu/7467149/BIOLOGICAL_ROOTS_OF_BEAUTY